May 6, 2021 | by Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner | NCNW National Chaplain and President of Skinner Leadership Institute
God of all creation, we praise you every day for mothers. Thank you, God, for another Mother’s Day that we may rise and call mothers of every race and background blessed and highly favored by you! Your word commands us to “Honor your father and mother, so that you may live long in the land, the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12).
Lord, there are no adequate words to thank you for mothers, or those, who, in a godly fashion, gifted us with life, nurture, security, and wellbeing. We bless your holy name for mothers, grandmothers, godmothers, stepmothers, or anyone mother-like who sacrificially parented our lives into self-conscious awareness that we matter, are loved, and valued. They dreamed of a world without barriers in which we might flower and grow into all you created us to be until we could dream and fend for ourselves. They saw us through eyes of love, created in your image, worthy of dignity and value you alone provide---capable of bringing greatness into the world.
We pray, today, as well, for every mother who sacrificially left jobs during the COVID pandemic to provide care and virtual schooling for their children. We pray that every barrier to women’s equality is broken so that women, who increasingly serve as caregivers, may adequately provide for their families. Thank you, God, for mothers oppressed by poverty, unable to give earthly gifts to their children, yet, instilling the priceless heavenly treasure of love and self-worth. Lord, we pray, especially for mothers, grieving endlessly for children they lost by various means, and for mothers of children killed by gun violence.
Only a holy and righteous God of boundless love could replicate a love in mothers---that is patient, kind, always protecting, always hopeful, and always persevering---a love that flows steadily from the throne of God. Almighty God, we pray for your steadfast protection, health, and strength for all mothers today and every day. In your powerful name, we pray, Lord Jesus, AMEN.
